Yep I am definately writing these more often of late... or it just seems that way cos I've not been writing that much else recently. Hmmm, anyway on with the review. The Crimson Gold by Voronica Whitney-Robinson is a Forgotten Realms novel, and the third book in a quartet of stand-alone tales titled The Rogues. This particular novel's central character is Thazienne Uskevren, the wealthy daughter of a powerful Sembian merchant family, with a larcenous streak.
Having started stealing as an infant to gain attention from her emotionally reserved father, she has gradually gotten better at it as she's grown older, tutored in part by her friend, the family butler Erevis Cale. This book is a sequel to an earlier novel (which I've not yet read), which was part of a seven book set called The Sembia Series. The same series featured the novel Shadow's Witness, which I recently reviewed, and which focuses on Cale himself.
The book starts with an entirely unneeded prologue featuring a duergar (gray dwarf) called Adnama Stoneblood, who is exploring some volcanic caves. He gets eaten by some creatures. So that was a waste of 16 pages. Next we get to meet Thazienne herself, who is a couple thousand miles from home, deep in a cave system under the Sunrise Mountains, busy stealing from some unknown race. She is stealing nuggets of crimson gold, a type of gold with a reddish glow to it, that is harder than steel. The reason why is explained later in the book, and to be honest is a crock of shit. She's stealing the gold, to replace the lump of the same stuff she took from her father years before. Only her father is dead now, which kinda defeats the point of her "quest".
The book is named for this substance, but it barely plays a role in the actual story, as she is out with her loot within one chapter. What then follows is a long drawn out journey story, wherein Thazienne (or Tazi as she is known to friends and family), is enlisted in the schemes of a Red Wizardess named Naglatha.
The Red Wizards are an organisation of evil spellcasters who utterly rule the nation of Thay, a large empire atop a plateau wherein magic rules, and slavery is widespread. In the past Thay has periodically invaded its neighbours, with mixed results. But of late, they have persued a policy of trade and peace. Naturally this doesn't sit well with many of the ruling council made up of the Zulkir's (each of which heads one of the eight schools of magic) and Tharchions (each of which controls a territory, much like a Duke rules a Duchy), but thus far none of the disgruntled have challenged the authority of the most powerful Zulkir of Necromancy, Szass Tam, who dictated the new approach.
Naglatha aims to change that, and she needs Tazi to do so. So she stages a bar brawl and gets her arrested and then enslaved. When she buys Tazi from the slave market, with her comes another duergar, Justikar Stoneblood (the brother of the dwarf devoured in the prologue). Though gruff and surly, Tazi is able to reach an accord with him wherein they will work together to serve Naglatha's interests and thus win their respective freedom from the wizardess.
None of this is that well written to be honest, the author regularly resorting to cliche's which quickly grow tiring. Also the journey to the mysterious Citadel takes FAR too long. It is 187 pages before the group (comprising Naglatha, Tazi, Justikar and Naglatha's two bodyguards Milos and Heraclos) arrive at the Citadel, and the book is only 312 pages long. This results in a long drawn out beginning and a rushed finale, which stinks of bad writing, with the very gratuitous use of name dropping. EVERY well known Red Wizard villain in the Realms is present, even if they only get a line or two of text, they are mentioned. Ohh plus a couple armies, volcanic eruptions, an apocalyptic battle, political intrigues and more. In the space of 100 pages?
The one redeeming feature of this book, is that the main villain himself Szass Tam, is very well written. Calm and commanding whilst all about him is in chaos, he is written like the natural (or unnatural when you consider that he is in fact an undead lich) leader that he is. For the sole sake of how well he is written I'm giving this book 2/5, otherwise it would get but a single point. I have read that the author of this book is no longer writing for the Forgotten Realms, and I can honestly say "Thank fuck for that!"
No comments:
Post a Comment